Study: Prostate Cancer Linked to Human Herpesvirus 8

An abnormally high number of men with prostate cancer have a virus in their blood that has previously been linked to Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer usually seen in AIDS patients, and to a rare type of lymphoma, according to University of Pittsburgh researchers.

The report in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, based on a study of 452 men in Tobago and Trinidad and 376 men in the United States, is the first to link the human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) to prostate cancer.

In their study, researchers said 39.9 percent of men with prostate cancer in the West Indies group had evidence of HHV-8 in their blood -- almost double the 22.9 percent rate seen among men without prostate cancer.

The rate of HHV-8 infection among men with prostate cancer in the U.S. group was 20 percent, significantly higher than the 13 percent rate among men with non-HHV-8-related cancers.

"HHV-8 seropositivity is elevated among men with prostate cancer compared with control subjects, which suggests that HHV-8 plays a role in the development of prostate cancer," the researchers concluded.

Other Sources: Journal of Infectious Diseases